Thibaut Courtois reveals his dream five-a-side team – as only Vinicius Jr makes the cut from his current Real Madrid team-mates

Thibaut Courtois has played with a whole host of great players during his  professional career and he has now created his ultimate five-a-side team from the team-mates he has had.

Real Madrid stopper Courtois was appearing on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, presented by Qatar Airways. 

And he was asked by the former Man United defender to assemble his dream five-a-side line-up.

We are left to assume that Courtois would be playing himself in goal as he moved straight on to naming his sole defender.   

‘That’s a really tough one,’ he said. ‘A centre-back, I would maybe put, of one of the defenders, I would choose maybe Ramos.’

‘I would put Eden (Hazard), he’s for sure the best one in the world. I’m sure, I’m sure. When we play the games, like the small side games, five against five or so, it’s always man-marking. So when you’re in possession, Eden would score, and when you have to defend, you’re defending with one.’

Courtois added that Hazard was the best he had ever seen when it came to beating his man. 

Needing a midfielder, Courtois then went for Madrid legend Toni Kroos. 

‘Toni would come in my box, give me the ball, and I was giving him the ball, I knew 99 per cent of the time nothing would happen,’ he said. 

‘Okay, he lost once a ball in, I don’t know how many games, but yeah.’

‘He came with the pressure, he knew what to do, left foot, right foot. He already knew before he’d get the ball why he would pass it, his technique, his passing. 

‘I think we really miss him also this year. I think so. He’s a different kind of midfielder than, obviously, what we have with the young kids, like Fede and Kamatz, more physical, more… they’re also good footballers, obviously, but Toni is unbelievable.’

Seemingly the five-a-side team had become more of a six-a-side as Ferdinand asked for two more names. 

‘I have to choose two, but it’s really hard, eh? Because, yeah, Vini (Junior)… Well, Kylian (Mbappe), I will not say yet, because I’m just playing with him for a few months, so we’ll keep him already out. 

Vinicius Jr (left) was the only member of Madrid’s current crop of players to make the cut 

‘So, I would maybe say (Karim) Benzema, because I think also Benzema as a striker, he was an amazing striker in the box, but also, I think the season we won the Champions League, the way he was also…

‘Yeah, he was, for me, like a number nine and a half. Between 10 and nine, he could do everything. I think he was scoring a lot of goals, but also assisting, he was making the team play better, so I would want to have him also on my team.

‘One more. Well, for a five-a-side, I would also put Vini. Vinicius. I love this guy. I’m very offensive, but I’m sure Sergio will keep that back with me.